RE: Lotus Esprit Sport 350: Spotted
Discussion
V8 FOU said:
Olivera said:
A cool looking thing, but twin-turbos and a V8 to make 350bhp seems a little quaint (read pants) by today's standards.
Obviously never driven one. Only c1300kg too."General Motors acquired Group Lotus, the UK based engineering consulting and performance car manufacturing firm. The Corvette division approached Lotus with the idea of developing the world's fastest production car, to be based on the C4 generation Corvette. With input from GM, Lotus designed a new engine to fit in place of the L98 V8 that was powering the standard C4. The result was what GM dubbed the LT5, an aluminum-block V-8 with the same bore centers as the L98, but with four overhead camshafts, 32 valves. Lotus also designed a unique air management system for the engine to provide a wider power band by shutting off 8 of the 16 intake runners and fuel injectors when the engine was at part-throttle, while still giving the ZR-1 375 bhp when at wide open throttle."
Frimley111R said:
A friend had a black one of these. Apparently they were all silver except 2 which were black and 2 which were white. He sold his for £20k a few years ago and won't be loving seeing the price of this now! 
I remember there being 1 black, 1 white and 1 in light blue/grey....
ishay said:
Not sure I agree about the lack of cachet having watched everybody staring at my mate's V8 as we drove around the other night.
This particular 350 was reviewed in an Esprit group test back in 2013 by the look of things. It didn't drive well compared to the smaller engined Esprits.
It was EVO issue 171 in 2012 and had the GT3 and Sport 300 as 5 star cars with this, the S4S and the Essex Turbo on 4 stars (the Series 1 on 4.5 stars).. Jethro Bovingdon described it as "definitely exciting, but patently not the best Esprit here.." This particular 350 was reviewed in an Esprit group test back in 2013 by the look of things. It didn't drive well compared to the smaller engined Esprits.
Still lots of want for this one though..!!
Still beautiful-looking cars after 3-4 decades. Fantastic design. Much more exciting and more theatre than the overpriced Porker nonsense. But they do breakdown a heck of a lot. Know someone with a green one, and it is ~80% in the garage, constantly chasing dodgy windows, electrics, rust, and other stuff.
Sadly these cars are often not driven enough and sit languishing in garages with minor faults allowing other issues to develop. Plus there are only a few specialists that have the patience and Heritage status to deal with them, especially the V8.
As for cache, go for a drive in a mint Esprit and see how much attention you get...
As for cache, go for a drive in a mint Esprit and see how much attention you get...
Yipper said:
Still beautiful-looking cars after 3-4 decades. Fantastic design. Much more exciting and more theatre than the overpriced Porker nonsense. But they do breakdown a heck of a lot. Know someone with a green one, and it is ~80% in the garage, constantly chasing dodgy windows, electrics, rust, and other stuff.
Must be a very early one to be suffering from rust. Are you just making stuff up again?rockin said:
Hmmm. My new Corvette Stingray is only 10% heavier yet 30% more powerful - with a pushrod engine and no turbos at all.
Is that a fair comparison? The 918 Esprit engine was developed over twenty years ago.
.Yipper said:
Still beautiful-looking cars after 3-4 decades. Fantastic design. Much more exciting and more theatre than the overpriced Porker nonsense. But they do breakdown a heck of a lot. Know someone with a green one, and it is ~80% in the garage, constantly chasing dodgy windows, electrics, rust, and other stuff.
That sounds suspiciously like more Yipper brand bullsh*t.An Esprit turbo was a dream car of mine, mainly due to my favorite game being Lotus turbo challenge as a kid. Ended up with the knockoff version instead which would be an MR2 Turbo.
At least the gearbox isn't made of glass I guess...
I'd still love one of the later 4cyl turbo versions, but I wonder if they stand up to abuse on track.
At least the gearbox isn't made of glass I guess...
I'd still love one of the later 4cyl turbo versions, but I wonder if they stand up to abuse on track.
rastapasta said:
what was the build quality like?? were they reliable?
Early cars in the 1970s had a poor reputation in just about every department. However, by 1981 the car was properly sorted with both turbo and N/A cars sharing the same improved chassis. Put at the simplest, any Esprit from mid-1980s onwards should be OK.- the cost of developing the 907 engine was paid by Jensen, whose company was destroyed by the new, unreliable Lotus engine in their Jensen Healey.
- the cost of developing the much improved 911 engine was paid by Chrysler, who used it in their Lotus Sunbeam. Later it became 912 in Esprit 2.2
- the cost of sorting the car itself was paid by early customers who suffered poor reliability and weak performance.
rockin said:
Early cars in the 1970s had a poor reputation in just about every department. However, by 1981 the car was properly sorted with both turbo and N/A cars sharing the same improved chassis. Put at the simplest, any Esprit from mid-1980s onwards should be OK.
and this V8 was funded by...?- the cost of developing the 907 engine was paid by Jensen, whose company was destroyed by the new, unreliable Lotus engine in their Jensen Healey.
- the cost of developing the much improved 911 engine was paid by Chrysler, who used it in their Lotus Sunbeam. Later it became 912 in Esprit 2.2
saaby93 said:
rockin said:
Early cars in the 1970s had a poor reputation in just about every department. However, by 1981 the car was properly sorted with both turbo and N/A cars sharing the same improved chassis. Put at the simplest, any Esprit from mid-1980s onwards should be OK.
and this V8 was funded by...?- the cost of developing the 907 engine was paid by Jensen, whose company was destroyed by the new, unreliable Lotus engine in their Jensen Healey.
- the cost of developing the much improved 911 engine was paid by Chrysler, who used it in their Lotus Sunbeam. Later it became 912 in Esprit 2.2
I was on the design team for the V8 (Project 618).
It was mostly worked on by a team of six engineers, plus Design Analysis (FEA, performance, stress analysis etc) and development.
At least half of the design team were working on it as an "out of hours" project, I used to do 4 hours o/t a day, 2hrs in the morning, 2 in the evening, that were charged out to the V8.
To keep costs down, we limited bolt selection to 2 lengths per size (excluding head, main bearing and con-rod bolts)
An Audi V8 from a scrappy was used for ECU development.
The engine was devleoped for c£5m, which is / was pretty much peanuts compared to the other manufacturers at the time.
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